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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoKYLE ROBERTSON | DISPATCH PHOTOSMilt Miller, of the Grand Lake St. Marys Restoration Commission, is working to help clean up the beleaguered lake.
Planned wetlands should filter phosphorus before it reaches the lake.

GRAND LAKE ST. MARYS — The memory of the toxic, blue-green algae bloom that sank the local tourism economy two years ago still haunts the 18,719 residents who call this lake home.The thick, smelly bloom, which was fed by phosphorus in manure that rains washed off nearby farms, drew national attention to this western Ohio lake when authorities suspected it caused illnesses in at least seven people.Warning signs went up around the lake, events were canceled and tourists, who usually pump millions of dollars into the local economy every year, stayed away. The lake became the poster child for farm pollution and algae woes that spread across Ohio that year.Though Grand Lake is still stained green, a coalition of area business leaders, state officials and farmers say it is getting better. And they are confident that it will one day be clear.“We’ve got a lot of strong-willed people,” said Milt Miller, of the Grand Lake St. Marys Restoration Commission, a group the banker helped form and now works for as its lake-restoration manager.Ohio officials have pumped in more than

$8.5 million to help pay for algae-fighting chemical treatments and dredging.Miller has organized local, state and federal support to make improvements, including a manmade wetland that filters water coming into the lake from Prairie Creek, one of seven that feeds the lake.The 9-acre complex pumps stream water through two treatment ponds designed to filter out sediment and then through a man-made wetland, where plants soak up the dissolved phosphorus before it gets into the lake.

Miller said the $900,000 complex, built on donated land, and others he wants to build on the six other feeder streams are critical to keeping the algae in check.

He points to aerial photos of the lake taken in the 1930s that show roughly 3,000 acres of wetlands along the lake’s southern edge. Almost all of those wetlands have been filled and replaced by lakefront homes and businesses.

“You can see Mother Nature wanted this beautiful network of wetlands here,” he said. “Everyone wants to kick the crap out of the farmers for this problem, but no one wants to kick the developers.”

Farmers are getting ready to do their part, too. Starting in January, new state rules will forbid spreading manure on fields during winter months.

More than 150 farms with livestock located south of the lake also will follow mandatory manure-management plans that call for regular soil tests to determine how much, if any, manure needs to be spread to grow crops.

Officials have said that many fields can go as long as 20 years without adding more phosphorus for fertilizer.The new rules have created a flurry of changes to area farms. Some have installed manure storage areas and adopted methods to cheaply export it to farms outside Grand Lake’s 112-square-mile drainage area.For Brad Schwieterman, 46, the changes meant constructing two manure storage buildings on his farm, where he raises dairy cows and grows crops. He said soil tests haven’t found high phosphorus levels on his fields.Others are testing methods to remove phosphorus from manure. Livestock farmer Jerry Will, 53, is working with a machine that draws phosphorus out of pig manure and turns it into crystals, which can be transported to farms outside the area.

“This is the future right here,” Will said.Despite this work, eliminating algae from Grand Lake St. Marys likely will take years. Sediment at the bottom of the shallow, 13,000-acre lake is thick with phosphorus. Each summer it helps feed the algae bloom.Efforts to treat the lake with alum, which reacts with phosphorus and keeps it out of the water, have had mixed results. Though officials said a 2011 alum treatment successfully kept algae levels low, an application this year didn’t work. They say efforts were foiled by high winds that stirred up more phosphorus sediment.

Dredging of phosphorus hot spots is under way, but the job is expensive and likely to continue piecemeal for several years.

Miller, however, remains undaunted.

“It took years for the lake to get into this situation,” he said. “It’s going to take years to get out of it.”